The Fish You Hook May Not Be The Only Ones Biting

ONLY IN FLORIDA - That's news to us -

As he was about to say before he was so rudely pounced upon and ripped apart: Its a jumping barracuda!

You may have heard by now that three times this summer barracuda have jumped into boats, twice chomping people and once knocking an entire boat out of operation by crashing into the ignition key.

Is this a growing trend? Will all the barracuda be doing it by next summer? We bungee jump, they boat jump?

Hey, Ralphie, check out that fat guy in the Boston Whaler, the one with the Budweiser. Hes mine. Bonzai!

I think we definitely are under siege here, and I recommend all people get out of the water as soon as possible, says George Burgess, a marine biologist who manages the International Shark Attack File in Gainesville.

Seriously, Burgess says, As much as Id like to give you a good story and say barracuda are after people, I cant.

The cudas, says Burgess, either are hooked or are chasing hooked fish when they go airborne.

They are not like sharks that come in and grab (their prey), and bulldog off a piece of it, he says. The way barracuda attack is they make runs at a food item. They achieve good speed and hit full steam.

The result, if they are attacking from underneath, is that they go airborne. In all three leaping barracuda incidents, the fish either were hooked or were chasing hooked fish, Burgess says.

The last leaping barracuda attack occurred in 1959 when a fish jumped into a boat and nipped a womans neck, leaving a wound that required six stitches.

As bad as these attacks are, however, they pale in comparison to the dreaded leaping houndfish. These are bigger versions of needlefish, those slender fish with the toothy beaks.

Well, houndfish like to jump also. And several years ago, one actually jumped into a boat at night attracted by the fishermans light speared the guy in the chest and killed him.